“Not like I have any other choice.” Sechen grunted, trying very hard to escape for having no other choice. “You left Revel and me to one of our fights; assholes came in and took Revel, the end.”

“No, not ‘the end’.” Elach said. “Revel’s gone? As in you can’t find her, or as in she’s gone missing? You said people attacked you, but did Revel get away? Or did they take her?”

“They… I don’t know.” Sechen said with frustration. “After they disarmed me, my manifestation came in to stop me from bleeding out. I remember a lot of screaming, and the room shaking around me, then… I…”

Sechen shuddered, then shook her head. “I was stuck in my headspace until you came by, bringing the doctors with you. So that’s all I remember; the attack, almost dying, and then you. It can’t be a coincidence.”

Elach grimaced, recalling the mostly perfect room he’d broken into when he saw the blood running under the door. If someone had attacked Sechen in there, they would have left at least some kind of damage to the room.

“Flow, go check out the room at the hotel really quick.” Elach turned and said, keeping one eye on Sechen as he spoke. “See if you can find anything out of place, then come back here. Something’s off about this story.”

“The only thing off is you from me.” Sechen spat, then paused. “Uh, what I meant is, the only thing is for you to get off of me?”

Elach looked down at Sechen with one raised eyebrow. “That was terrible.”

“Yeah, I know.” Sechen sighed. “But it got you to look at me.”

The flash of light was blinding, but Elach didn’t so much as flinch back. Sechen kicked at his side and tried to claw at his elbows, screaming bloody murder for the brief moments the light took Elach’s vision from him. When the brightness faded back into colour, he saw Sechen’s dumbfounded face staring up at him.

“How in the hells didn’t you flinch?” She asked incredulously. “You just stared down at me the whole time. Like it didn’t even affect you.”

“I mean, I have you trapped. I’m not going to just let you go because you got too bright.” Elach snorted. “I’d be dead ten times over if I panicked at every surprise an Issi beast threw at me.”

Sechen blinked once then closed her eyes, a bright spot running up her arm and onto his. Somehow Elach knew that it physically couldn’t do anything to hurt him, so he let it travel along his one arm and down the opposite leg before it returned to Sechen’s heart. She shook her head and muttered something inaudible to herself, then sighed loudly and opened her eyes.

“Your pathways are scarily strong. Like, stronger than almost anyone else I’ve seen. And I’ve seen a whole lot of practitioners.” Sechen chuckled. “You said that you were a guide, right? For a long time?”

Elach frowned. “Yes. What does that have to do with anything?”

“Because it’d explain what I just felt.” Sechen said slowly, as if she was putting together the pieces of a puzzle in her mind. “You really weren’t lying about… well, anything. Were you? Well, except for hiding how strong your Issi was, but the existential bleed must’ve been screwing with you. Like you were going through a withdrawal, or something, so you seemed weaker than you actually were.”

“If that’s what you think.” Elach said plainly. He didn’t feel so bad about lying to Sechen anymore. “Does that change the fact that you’re going to slit my throat the moment I let you go?”

“...I might’ve come on a little too strong.” Sechen admitted, turning her head to the side and looking at the cage where Gilt was going to be. “So why were you looking at that, if you weren’t thinking of throwing your hat in with Promised Tomorrows?”

Elach sighed, shifting his arm down closer to Sechen’s hand. He didn’t want her clawing his elbow again, and he was tired of her attempts to get information out of him even though she was the one disarmed and on the floor.

“I’ll tell you after you give me the real story. Not the bullshit one you just told me, but the whole deal.” He demanded. “Even then, I’ll have to take you to Metea/Irric and Rainshear later… to… to…”

Elach shook his head, his wandering thoughts stifled by calming ripples. “Rainshear knows this place better than I do, and probably better than you do. I’ll take you to them as soon as Flow gets back.”

“You’re with Metea/Irric and Rainshear?” Sechen leaned her head back and blew out a long breath. “Wow, I really jumped to conclusions on this one, didn’t I? Alright, I’ll tell you the whole story as long as you tell me why you’re looking at that cage. And I’d love it if you could let me sit down instead of looming over me.”

Elach frowned down at Sechen at the mere suggestion of letting her go.

“You can hold my arm hostage to make sure I don’t run away.” Sechen offered, knocking her head against the glass to gesture at her fallen limb. “I’m not as strong as you, anyway, so I couldn’t run away even if I wanted to.”

“Alright, I guess.” Elach shrugged, placing an anchor directly above Sechen’s arm and pulling himself to it. He hooked it under the elbow and kicked it up, catching it with one hand and throwing it over his shoulder before realizing he didn’t want it anywhere near his neck. “Start talking.” He said as he dropped Sechen’s arm back to the ground, eliciting a wince from her as she struggled into sitting against the glass railing.

Sechen winced once more when Elach started rolling her bony arm forwards with his foot. “You know how it started off, since you were there for it, so I’ll skip right to the action. I was in the middle of yelling at Revel for some reason I don’t remember, and then there was a knock at the window. Which was weird to begin with, since we weren’t on the ground floor, so it shut both of us up real quick.”

“The action?” Elach cut in.

“Right. Right.” Sechen sighed, fiddling with the circlet around her neck with her one hand. She was obviously uncomfortable about something, and Elach didn’t think it had to do with his shoe on her other elbow. “The window cracked open from the outside, and I didn’t remember hearing anything like a lock clicking open. Which doesn’t make sense, since we booked the room through a source that’s supposed to keep people like Revel safe.”

“Wisp manifestation?” Elach asked.

“Wisp manifestations.” Sechen confirmed with a nod. “Two people came in through the window, and one opened the door to seal us in. But they weren’t like normal people. They were… fuzzy. In the moment I know they had faces and distinct Issi types, but when I try to remember, everything’s just a mass of grey.”

“I… We fought hard, but it was pointless. I lost my arm, and I remember Revel screaming something as I fell to the floor. The pain was unbearable, like hot coals being shoved through my veins, and I blacked out almost instantly.”

Sechen grimaced, clutching her circlet tight, her arm under Elach’s foot mimicking the gesture with empty air. “When I woke up, all the damage that had happened to the room was gone. I was bleeding a whole lot, but my Issi was filling in where the blood was supposed to be to keep me alive. I tried to move, but my body wouldn’t listen to me, then I blacked out again. I woke up to you after that, and the doctors again after that.”

“I didn’t have anyone else to blame, so I blamed you.” Sechen said, shooting Elach an apologetic look. “I asked where you were, and the doctors said you’d come with Metea/Irric. So I went to Rainshear’s cafe, but she wasn’t there.”

“And you asked around, found out that we’d gone to the prize hall, and tracked me down.” Elach surmised, tapping his fingers on his elbows as he nodded along.

“Not… exactly.” Sechen chuckled sheepishly, looking down at her feet. “I kinda ran around pointlessly for a few hours, and happened to see you eating lunch with Metea/Irric and Rainshear.”

Elach frowned, and Sechen yelped. He lifted his foot from her arm, where he must have unconsciously pressed a little too hard. “If you knew I was with them, then why did you act like you didn’t know a few minutes ago?”

“Try telling an angry brain to think logically.” Sechen laughed humorlessly. “I barely noticed they were there, to be honest. All I could think was that I’d found you.”

The silence that followed told Elach that she’d finished with her story, staring off into the distance while lost in her own thoughts. He couldn’t blame her for being so emotional over what might be the loss of her patron, but that didn’t justify threatening to kill him from the get-go. He should get this over with and bring Sechen down to Rainshear as quickly as possible.

He hissed as that damn calming Issi flowed down his spine, so close to breaking free of it just before it took hold.

“I’m here because this cage is for my friend.” He said, gesturing at the cage that was most likely reserved for Gilt. “My patron sent me here for a reason, and I’m pretty sure this is it. And I’ve got another question for you; why didn’t you trust me back when we first met? I never lied to you, and you could see that I had existential bleed in my body.”

“Because we already met. Twice. Once at the inn we stayed at before Resthollow’s trials, and then when you failed to bond with Resthollow. But if you really were on the other side of the divide, you wouldn’t remember that. And then you show up here a few months later, claiming that you bonded with a patron that let you cross the divide? You have to admit that’s shady.”

Elach shrugged. “I’ll give you that. Why were you there in the first place?”

“Because Revel wanted me to bond with them. Resthollow’s the most powerful steel patron on the world piece, and Revel thought that adding steel to my light Issi would be a good combination.” Sechen shrugged, clamping a hand over her shoulder when her arm started to sag out of its socket. “I didn’t really want steel Issi anyways, and it turns out it’s impossible to complete a trial for a patron on the other side of the divide.”

“Hrmm. So, going back to the why didn’t you trust me thing; couldn’t you tell that I didn’t have any Issi back then? And I do have Issi now?”

“Well, yeah, I guess. But I couldn’t just assume you were telling the truth. Revel was there.”

“Isn’t Revel a lot more powerful than you? And, by extension, me?”

“Yeah, but she isn’t more powerful than the people that want to use her for the fact that she’s a wisp manifestation. And an unknown showing up right when we do? Honestly, I wish Revel didn’t butt in and instead left you to the Glasrime apprentices.”

“Aw, thanks. I’ve always wondered what the inside of a jail cell looks like.”

“They would have treated you fine. Glasrime, though?” Sechen involuntarily let out a full-body shudder. “I wouldn’t go near that thing for infinite coin.”

“They’re in cahoots with people like Promised Tomorrows?”

“More like they don’t care what happens to anyone outside their immediate little circle. And that includes their own apprentices, by the way.”

“Yeah. Arvay and Hugil had the same sentiment.”

“You met them again?” Sechen turned and started walking backwards. “And they didn’t try to apprehend you?”

“Nope. You and Revel vouching for me did wonders for my reputation.”

Flow chose that moment to return, shaking their head and cawing as they landed on Elach’s shoulder. “Nothing at all.” He relayed. “Let’s go see if Rainshear can help.”